Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Will Release This Summer

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be launching for PC and PlayStation 3 this Summer, Square Enix have announced.

The game is scheduled to enter its third phase of closed beta testing in June. Phase 3 will make the PlayStation 3 version of the game playable, and PS3 players will be able to play the game with PC users, thanks to its cross-platform nature.

Additionally, Phase 3 will also introduce new content such as the city states of Ul’dah and Limsa Lominsa.

Oh yeah. I signed up for the Beta. I hope I get in! :) My first FF and MMO. :D

Settsuo

Earlier than I thought. I had it in my budget as a Sep-Oct release. No matter bumping it up is great news and I can’t wait to start playing!

Ehren Rivers

Actually, they’re pushing it back. The original roadmap for the beta had their last phase (4, the open beta) ending toward the middle/end of June, to see release likely a few weeks later. They got off to about a week and a half late on Phase 1, and Phase 3 is being delayed a month because of issues with Sony certification on the PS3 version. As it sits now, if there’s no more delays after this the game will probably release end of July or early August.

Settsuo

I accounted for the downtime after Phase 4 and an array of delays that could have possibly happened during the phase/debug stages. I may have overshot by a bit(okay a lot), but had to take a guess as to when it might’ve released so I can see where it’ll fit in when purchasing the game/sub. All in all expecting great things from this title.

Ehren Rivers

There’s much reason to be excited! Recently Square Enix told those of us who are in press (I’m a writer for Nova Crystallis) that we’re not bound by the NDA except for the purposes of uploading videos/images and linking to the beta forums, so I’ve been slowly putting together an editorial about it.

almace

Actually its not Sony. They need rating certification from the 4 countries. (US, FR, DE, JP)

rating certification takes a long time.

Ehren Rivers

The official statement from Square Enix to the beta testers was that Sony has not finished certification for the PS3 version of the game. Whatever the specifics of the certification, it’s out of Square Enix’s hands.

almace

They need the rating certifications from the other regions like the ESRB to put it on the PS3. That is what they’re waiting on. Its not just Sony alone I guess. thanks for the correction btw.

Zanetsu

Being a beta tester for the original got me to abstain for the original launch, but from what they’ve been showing, I’m actually kind of excited about the reworking of it.

Amine Hsu Nekuchan

I suppose we’ll get to see if there really are second chances in the MMO world or not.

jordanbobordan

Since I AM FINALLY ALLOWED to talk about the game to a certain extent, I can ASSURE you that this is a truly groundbreaking experience. I can only talk about gridania and the character creator, but everyone has already seen some gameplay of both of those, unfortunately they do not do the mechanics and the aesthetic design justice in the slightest. The execution in this game is on a truly unreal level from a design perspective. Up until they announced A realm reborn I was wondering where all of the real talent at square had gone (like the teams from final fantasy tactics/12, final fantasy ix, or tactics orge). I now realize that they have all been working on this, that is all i’ll say for now.

I’m quite optimistic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an MMO shut itself down, concede that there were some issues- fix them, and re-release itself.
I’ll give it a shot again~

Corey Owens

What’s more surprising is that they’ve shut it down, completely re-made it and still managed to make it worse than it was before.

Now that’s impressive.

Seliph

Thank you for the in-depth explanation of what you’ve found wrong with it. It really helps make your comment convincing and believable.

Kalis Konig

care to elaborate? from what I have heard it has become what it should have been to begin with. If I am misinformed then please help me understand because I wouldn’t mind saving a few bucks this summer.

Corey Owens

They’ve taken a genuine experience they had and made it into a WoW clone FF stamped theme park. The graphics were lowered due to a new engine, the characters feel weightless due to the new movement system they’ve added. Animations have been dumbed down and are not being improved. The worst part of it all is that they’ve completely gimped the battle system. Before, combos relied on positioning, timing and stringing together different combos to achieve maximum damage over time. Now, there’s no positioning and every job has only 1 string of combos which is much better than anything else in the game. So combat dissolves down to click 1 -> 2 -> 3 and waiting to do it again.

The only improvements are the environments. Everything else has either been “WoWified” or dumbed down to an even worse level.

IE: If you liked playing MMOs before WoW was released, this likely wont be your cup of tea.

almace

Look, you’re not just saying, you’re down playing. I know you probably made up your mind, but stop spreading propaganda, and false information, especially about game mechanics that is in close beta. The game will get DX11 in a later update. You should well know the combat system is incomplete and will be getting revamped in phase 3 like, with the addition of limit breaks etc.

M’iau M’iaut

I see very basic comments based on one person’s view. Maybe they do get revamped, but no one knows which things and how. The thoughts apply to this moment in time and certainly are not spilling grand secrets.

almace

That is true to a certain degree, but people must understand its not a demo they’re playing.

Corey Owens

DX11 is not going to increase the quality on character models or environments DX11 will only affect lighting/shading, and maybe small physics systems here and there. The combat system is not changing and there is a two page dev post by Yoshi-P about why he’s not changing it. I will play phase 3, because I want to believe it’ll be good. I’m not expecting it to be any different from what I’ve seen.

Any information I have provided are regurgitated facts.

new_tradition

Hope I get into the PS3 beta. I just have a 60 GB model; how much space should I reserve for the game and updates?

Just buy a regular harddrive and switch out
your 60 gig one? You could potentially have a PS3 Phat with 1 TB memory…

Juan Andrés Valencia

You can backup your files on an external hard drive and as soon as you change your PS3 HDD you follow the instructions on the data transfer wizard and it’s done.

Juan Andrés Valencia

You can change the HDD to a bigger one for cheap (It uses laptop HDD’s so you can even change it to a SSD if you are made of money). Also, most MMO’s are insanely big in terms of HDD usage and considering how good many download only games are I don’t think it would be a bad choice to upgrade

Just to give you some examples The Secret World uses 40GB, TERA uses 30GB, Age Of Conan uses 35GB, Final Fantasy XI with expansions uses around 10-12GB (On the 360), Defiance is about 10-12 GB’s (On the PS3), DC Universe Online uses 17GB (On the PS3) and Kingdom Under Fire II comes with a massive 75GB install (PC version beta and all I can say is HOLY SHIT).

Thank you for the info. I actually have a 1TB desktop external hard drive lying around I wouldn’t mind putting in my PS3, but I guess that’s too big then. Hrmm…

My fear is basically even doing anything physical with my PS3. I very much take pride it’s a coveted BC model that can play PS2 games, so I don’t want to mess around with a good thing.

Juan Andrés Valencia

There are video tutorials out there that can help you out. It’s far from a complicated process, but then again I changed my GBA SP case, battery, I built my PC and I changed my PSP’s faceplate so anything else seems easy in comparison :P .

This one’s from Tiger Direct and it’s the one I used when I started doing hardware changes in some of my systems (One of which was changing my PS3 HDD) : http://youtu.be/NNSytaL9hnI

SirTeffy

It is literally pry off side panel (which is clearly visible and possible with a screwdriver) > Remove standard phillips head screw > slide HDD out > Slide new HDD in > Replace screw > Replace panel.

You’ll want to look up a video, though, as you have to slide the HDD forward (toward the front of the system), THEN pull it out, as it has an actual connector it hooks into.

Tanthalas

Yoshi-P said a few weeks (maybe months) ago that they were aiming for an install size of 10GB for the PS3.

That was a while ago though, and you’d also have to account for future updates as well.

Crevox

Sadly Summoner/Arcanist won’t be available until launch, but that won’t stop me from getting my character back in phase 3!

Ferrick

well back in 11, summoner didn’t come out until a few months after the game is released

Crevox

They said it would be available at launch.

Matt Andre

Ferrick said 11. FFXI. Summoner wasn’t a job from release, it was added months later. Two different games. You’re right that *XIV* Summoner is from launch, but you were mistaken about his point.

Crevox

I know what he said, but I assumed he was using what happened in 11 as an inference to what will happen in 14.

I assume there will be a subscription fee for this game? Haven’t looked into that yet. Looks amazing and would love to get into it. Doubt I’d have the extra cash though… Life of a freelance filmmaker ahaha.

Really excited for the launch of A Realm Reborn. I know when it launches, it will be my MMO for a very long time. Summer can’t come soon enough =^_^=

Keima88

So many games, so little time.

Oh well no sleep for me then.

Solomon_Kano

I pray that I get into Phase 3.

badmoogle

I assume these are PC screenshots right?

Crevox

For the most part the games are the same; there will be differences between the two versions (resolution, frame rate), but we don’t know specifics beyond that yet cause the PS3 beta isn’t out.

eilegz

hopefully free to play?

Crevox

Definitely not, and I certainly hope they never do.

Unlimax

Your Avatar say Hi lol !

PSO2 is Free to play by the way ..

Crevox

I don’t hate free to play games, I just don’t want FFXIV to be free to play. The game requires a subscription to be the successful, high quality game it deserves to be. Any other model for revenue leads to negatives in game (cash shop, trading real $$$ for gil, etc). PSO2 suffers from this pretty badly already.

Brion Valkerion

Pay to play MMOs dont work anymore. Sadly it does not look like SE listened to the producer when he said as much last year. He said it in a business manner but hes not wrong lol.

Luna Kazemaru

P2P MMO’s still work do not know what you talking about if an MMO doesn’t have enough content or players it goes f2p.

Ferrick

free to play mmos are the ones that don’t work, infact many F2P mmos closed down this year

Aristides

A summer launch is a very good idea :P it’ll hook people with too much free time on their hands and make them intermittent players during the rest of the year.

revenent hell

I planned to get this be for it was a realm reborn when they released a ps3 version, well we all know that didn’t happen but it has made me cautious about this version…. I wont lie all the issues with the past one just makes me not want this one even though its pretty much a whole new game.

I don’t really do games like this that come with a subscription fee so that doesn’t help, my original hype was thoroughly crushed and now I think im just going to wait and see.

Sakurazaki

I’ve been playing the beta for quite some time now.

I’ve practically stopped playing all my other MMOs to play it. I love it a lot <3

Kelohmello

Really sad I didn’t get into the beta for this. Pretty heavily anticipating this game right now.

I just finished phase 2 beta with no word on the testing forums that we won’t enter phase 3 until June, and leave it to Siliconera to drop the bomb first… lol I can’t wait to travel out of the Shroud!

Ferrick

you do know that they have the schedule for that released a long time ago right ?

NinetynineAlmaceBLU

The schedule would suggest (“1-2 weeks after Phase 2 for Phase 3”) that it begins in the middle of May. Hopefully they are still on schedule and we get a nice mid-May surprise!

harpdevil

If they have any sense at all they will release the higher-specced version on PS4. I think the only reason they are releasing on PS3 is because they promised they would and need to save face at the moment. The PS3 version as it is is damn near unplayable. I’m excited to play it’s not going to happen with that frame rate.

almace

Curious, please tell me where did you play this PS3 version that was unplayable?

Last time I checked they said the game is only 75% optimized on ps3, and they recently found more room for optimization.

harpdevil

Please read the other responses I’ve made for my answer. The sarcastic tone is unnecessary, but good to hear more optimisation is possible.

Luna Kazemaru

troll levels are high in this post.

harpdevil

There’s a real problem with this site. If anyone disagrees with an opinion or mildly criticises a game, they get called out as a troll. I’m not a troll, I’m a person with a differing opinion to you. Are you suggesting the only footage we’ve had of this game on PS3 had no problems? I said it had a bad frame rate, which is inarguable, and that it was unplayable because of that, which is my subjective opinion. I’d love this game to be amazing, I hope it is.

Luna Kazemaru

SO you played the ps3 version…Ok where was a beta for that? I’ve been in testing since alpha so explain to me where was the sign up for that. Unplayable? Oh right because there was no testing for it.

harpdevil

No, I didn’t say I had played it. Subjective opinion. From what I have seen (which is the same as everyone else) my opinion is that it would be unplayable (for me. Opinion. Subjectivity. Is this clear?) in its current state. Maybe the frame rate issues will be solved and that would be brilliant, but they seem to have been having some problems with the PS3 version and I wonder if it can be solved. Problems like this have been common on PS3, look at Skyrim and its memory issues.

MrSirFeatherFang

Wait… you implied that you played the PS3 versionThe PS3 version as it is is damn near unplayable.
How would you know about the frame rate or anything at all about the PS3 version, if you or anyone has actually played it?

harpdevil

The PS3 version as it is is damn near unplayable, in my opinion. I shouldn’t need to say that everything I say is my opinion, because I am just a commenter on this site same as all of you. No-one has played it. If you watch a video on youtube and it freezes and buffers for ages, then plays for 2 seconds and freezes again over and over, you might say that video is unwatchable. Because your experience watching the video is so hampered that it becomes too frustrating to watch. This is what I’m saying about the frame rate of the PS3 version. I’ve seen the frame rate of the PS3 version because SE showed footage in a trailer recently, comparing it with the PC version.

gamerdude

It looks great. But plays horribly. Every step of the way is hand held and controlled to the point that the game doesn’t really seem to need you for anything at all.

The leves are only way to level and they are repetitive and lacking in presentation.

What’s worse the storytelling that FF games are known for are reduced to small flavor-boxes.

If you played XI and enjoyed it’s quest-lines and quests that had music and cutsenes every now and then you can forget all that.

When players say that this feels like wow-clone they really mean it.

There is no ounce of soul in this shallow experience at this point.

The Watcher

If Pso2 don’t hurry up then my business will be going to this game

The Watcher

Noob alert! what is the difference between a Class and a Job?

Damarius Wingfield

Well a class is a type of character say a mage, knight, etc. And a job is role that a class takes. Common RPG info pal. Although how they will do this in this game is unknown at the moment.